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Mick began showing symptoms on the weekend of March 21/22. His bones ached, he had a mild cough and a temperature.

"He started to feel a little better over the weekend and went to work as normal on Monday thinking it was a cold. He looked pale and was still coughing but didn’t seem to have a temperature and still thought it was just a bad cold.

"His chest was tight but he thought that was down to the coughing. I had the shock of my life. He wasn't making a sound at all. I thought he'd had a heart attack. He gasped. He was trying to say he couldn't breathe. I gave him an inhaler and rang 999."

"It was the worst hour of my life. I sent my son across the road for a defibrillator."

He was then moved to hospital and she could only get updates by phone, adding: "He fought for his life for five days and has never been so ill or felt so close to death. He was scared and on his own.

Wife Tracy used her husband's experience to try and prevent people from going outside (Image: MEN Media)

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"The ward and the whole hospital was on lockdown, contact and communication with the medical staff and doctors was limited and frightening as they struggled with him day and night.

"For five days he was under the critical care team hooked up to oxygen and all sorts of drips and machines to support him because his body was trying to shut down. On the third day the medical team prepared us for the worst."

It was on the fourth day of feeling ill that Mick began showing signs of improvement.

"By the fifth day he was able to breathe independently of the machines and was weaned off the drips. He was released from hospital with medication (on Monday) and remains very poorly, weak and exhausted. He is now at home recovering in isolation.

"He wants everyone to know that this is real and very serious and to help people realise the impact not just on him but on the hospital, all its staff, and the whole family.

"Please be bored, be restless, be resentful of being told what to do but please just do it - stay home and stay safe."